Birds -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy literature; Nature -- Juvenile fiction
"Don't know, Chub; but it'll be the right thing, whatever it is. You
may be sure of that."
They visited the nest of the baby goldfinches, and found the Widow
Chaffinch still caring for the orphans in her motherly way. The little
ones seemed to be as hungry as ever, but the widow assured the
lark-children that all five had just been fed.
"Did you ever hear of a tingle-berry?" asked Twinkle.
"Yes; it seems to me I have heard of that berry," was the reply. "If I
remember rightly my grandmother once told me of the tingle-berries, and
warned me never to eat one. But I am quite certain the things do not
grow in our forest, for I have never seen one that I can recollect."
"Where do they grow, then?" enquired Chubbins.
"I can't say exactly where; but if they are not in the forest, they
must grow in the open country."
The child-larks now returned to their own nest, and sat snuggled up in
it during the evening, talking over the day's experiences and the
wonderful things they had seen in the fairy-like Paradise of the Birds.
So much sight-seeing had made them tired, so when it grew dark they
fell fast asleep, and did not waken until the sun was peeping over the
edge of the trees.
"Good gracious!" exclaimed the girl, "we shall be late at the meeting
at the Judgment Tree. Let's hurry, Chub."
They ate a hasty breakfast from the contents of their basket, and after
flying to the brook for a drink and a dip in the cool water they
hurried toward the Judgment Tree.
There they found a vast assemblage of birds. They were so numerous,
indeed, that Twinkle was surprised to find that so many of them
inhabited the forest.
But a still greater surprise was in store for her, for immediately she
discovered sitting upon the biggest branch of the tree twenty-two
bluejays, all in a row. They were large, splendidly plumaged birds,
with keen eyes and sharp bills, and at their head was the children's
old friend, the policeman.
"These are my cousins," he said to the child-larks, proudly, "and I
have brought them from another forest, where they live, to assist me. I
am not afraid of the foolish rooks now, and in a moment we shall fly
away to give them battle."
The forest birds were all in a flutter of delight at the prompt arrival
of the powerful bluejays, and when the word of command was given they
all left the tree and flew swiftly to meet the rooks.
First came the ranks of the twenty-two bluejays, with the policeman at
their head. Then followed many magpies and cuckoos, who were too clever
to side with the naughty rooks when they saw the powerful birds the
bluejay had summoned to his assistance. After these flew the smaller
birds, of all descriptions, and they were so many and at the same time
so angry that they were likely to prove stubborn foes in a fight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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